OTTAWA – The Conservative government said it is a victim of a smear campaign fueled by “poor losers” on Wednesday as allegations of robocalls and voter suppression tactics continue to mount.
“In the absence of information, I will just conclude that nine months after the election these are smears that appeared out of nowhere. It is a typical Liberal tactic. Where’s the beef? Where the proof?” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said during Question Period on Wednesday.
The raucous hour was again dominated by opposition questions about what role the Conservatives played, if any, in making the deceitful robocalls that sent voters to wrong or non-existent polling stations now under investigation by Elections Canada and the RCMP.
More than 40 Liberal and NDP campaigns have come forward alleging they were targeted by robocalls or harassing phone crusades misrepresenting their candidates or parties.
For the third day this week, Harper and his Parliamentary Secretary Dean Del Mastro spent Question Period deflecting the allegations and the demands for them to provide the House of Commons with documents. Instead, they told opposition parties to take any evidence they have and give it to Elections Canada.
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The Prime Minister responded that the Conservative Party has made all of its information available to Elections Canada from the start.
“The Conservative party can say absolutely definitively it has no role in any of this,” Harper said in response to a question from NDP leader Nycole Turmel. “The Honourable Leader of the NDP should provide her party’s information to Elections Canada otherwise I think we just conclude this is just a smear campaign without any basis.”
Conservatives dropped the word smear approximately 17 times during Question Period, three of which were contained in just one response from Del Mastro.
“This member and the members of his party have conducted a smear campaign against our party, a completely unsubstantiated smear campaign,” Del Mastro said to NDP MP Charlie Angus. “If they have evidence, produce it. Otherwise, Mr. Speaker, Canadians are left to conclude that this is nothing but a party conducting a full-blown unsubstantiated smear campaign.”
In French, Del Mastro called the Liberals and NDP poor losers who are trying to explain why Canadians rejected them in the May election.
The opposition parties said the proof is pouring in as campaigns review their records and constituents call in to report oddities they let slide last spring.
“The proof is coming in by the hour every day to our offices of constituents reporting that their right to cast their ballot was interfered with on Election Day,” said NDP MP Pat Martin in Question Period. “Now we’ve asked (the Conservatives) to table all documents related to their relationship with RackNine, RMG and that other outfit campaign research. Where are all the invoices, all the documents, all the contracts that this government has with those contractors?”
Liberal interim leader Bob Rae said he wasn’t surprised by the Conservatives’ insistence that they are being targeted by a smear campaign.
“You sit there and listen to this robo-repetition of language and you just say that’s the line of the day,” he said. “I know what the line of the day is after the first answer and I know I’m going to hear that line 25 or 30 times, that’s the way they operate.”
Del Mastro said the opposition parties have nothing to back up their allegations and insisted it had nothing to do with the alleged electoral tricks.
“Our party, the Conservative party of Canada, ran a clean and ethical campaign. We won the support of Canadians from coast to coast to coast,” he said.
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